boys
Can I rant about boys please?
Not generic, smelly, slightly goofy teenage boys, but twenty-two year old chaps who one employs in ones company.
Chaps who are very, very good at the creative and technical side of what they do, but are GOD AWFUL CRAP at communicating what they've actually done or what they are actually doing during the course of a day working at home.
Chaps who seem perfectly prepared to speak to your co-director stroke co-manager stroke husband about stuff; but who seem to think that it is fine to ignore your own emails or text messages or voicemails.
I am starting to think that it's because of the gender thing.
That perhaps I am less worthy of respect because I don't go out and lift boxes and load and unload trucks but do more of the organisational back-room stuff that isn't that obvious.
Stuff that could, perhaps, be undervalued by a recent graduate who has never actually worked in an office situation or for a proper company and doesn't understand all the ramifications of team-work.
A chap who gives off a vague feeling of resentment when I ask him politely, for the umpteenth time, to acknowledge my communications.
Perhaps he thinks that I don't really do anything very much. That my husband is the driving force behind the company. Maybe he thinks that because I am pregnant (I haven't mentioned that here by the way, although I have on my own blog - yay!), my brain has suddenly turned to mush and I am no longer part of the company.
Anyway.
I am ticked off.
And I need to have a conversation with him about it - but it's kind of difficult, as we are running a virtual office situation and he is at one end of the country when he is not out on jobs and I am at the other. And it's the kind of conversation that you need to have face to face.
So. How informal can you be in this kind of work situation with young men? How do you make them realise that although it's a relaxed working environment, it's still a deadly serious business? And how do I get him to take me seriously without a) sounding like a hysteric and b) putting his back up - if it isn't up already?
Gah.
posted by Ally at 5:01 PM
8 Comments:
He is only a kid. I have one exactly the same age home 'temporarily' and filling the house with pungent perfumed deodorant, loud and constant calls on his mobile and extremely smelly socks.
They are bloody clueless and need it spelled out in a way that makes them wet fart, or nothing changes. I think you have him pegged.
You, on the other hand, are swimming in pregnancy hormones and showing a level of self doubt that just wouldnt have been there before, so perhaps the question to ask yourself is 'What would Ally do?'
Maybe she would phone him to ask directly whether he's sexist, dyslexic, ot just doesnt care if he sells his boss' reputation down the river by screwing up the projections or payments.
Maybe she would get her husband to speak sternly to him about how essential that part of the job is. After all if the damn kid DOES think you are his equal and therefore to be ignored, maybe showing him you can make the top dog (as HE currently sees it) tell him off is all he needs.
Maybe you could cut and paste all the emails together, send them to EVERYBODY (copied to Kid) and ask if he ignores them too or if its just you?
Ask Zilla - she is in a similar work situation with tons of experience.
In the meantine - Pass the blood-pressure buck! Your husband really ought to be doing all the stressing on your behalf at the moment. By all means bite heads off and never look back, just dont get acid over it. Doctor's orders!
:-)
He sounds pretty typical for his age. They are all awash with testosterone and trying to put their stamp on the world without knowing how the world REALLY works. Life will mold him, we hope, but the time he's 40 or so. Unfortunately, the situation you're in is supposed to be one of the things that will teach him, and its unfair to you right now. I agree with Cheryl, your husband should take him out and shoot him, er, I mean, talk to him about the respect that your position demands. You don't need the aggravation.
And congratulations, too!
The kid needs someone to chew him an extra arsehole. While I imagine you're more than capable, you don't currently need the grief, so unless you feel the need to vent hormone-fuelled anger on someone I suggest that B step forward and explain the situation to this lad in words of one syllable before he renders himself unemployable.
I'm actually getting quite irate on your behalf. Sonofabitch kid - I loathe getting this wound up. He'd better be good at his job!!
Every time you send Idiot Boy an email, send Dh the same email. When Dh replies "why are you sending me all this shit?" you reply (to both of them) that you are sending it to DH so that he knows that you have been trying to do your job, but that Idiot Boy is ignoring you because of your failure to have a penis.
Tell Dh that he is the closest you will ever come to having an actual penis, and thus you thought that maybe he could get Idiot Boy to do his fucking job.
Hope that Idiot Boy shits his pants when he sees you sending to him and Dh the 18th daily email saying "yo, Idiot Boy! When are you going to act as if I exist and am in fact your fucking boss?"
Option #2: send him his check, but do not sign it. When he complains, point out that Dh does not sign the checks, you do, and you don't see any reason to actually finish your job either.
He needs to learn this one, and fast.
Hah! Good one, Lizard!
Fantastic. When we are very, very successful I will immediately be hiring you all as our personnel department. Is that okay?
B reckons that because this particular chap is still living at home, he is having issues with his mother. I suspect that this is true - however, knowing that he's transferring them on to me makes me feel SOOOOO much better! :).
Me, I'm too old to put up with bullshit. I would tell him straight up, this is how it is, welcome to reality. And I would remind him of the many others who would like to have his job.
It may not be a gender problem. More like the assinine work ethic that many young people are growing up with. I work with one young lady that every evening it takes all I can muster not to choke her to death.
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